The state of the Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets and Avs

The Denver Broncos plan to launch an online marketing campaign in a month that will ask fans to select the franchise’s “all-time team,” said Greg Carney, the team’s vice president of marketing. The move will commemorate the team’s 50th year anniversary.

Carney spoke at a sports business forum this morning hosted by the Downtown Denver Partnership at the Denver Athletic Club. Spokesmen from the Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche also made presentations. More information on those franchises later in the post.

The Broncos, like other pro teams, have been hurt by the economy. Though season ticket renewals are on par with previous years, corporate suite sales have dropped, Carney said. “We’ve seen a slight decline in suite sales,” he said. Carney also provided a couple of other interesting tidbits about the Broncos:
“Roughly 95 percent of our fan base will never see our product live,” he said.
The Broncos have season ticket holders from all 50 states.

The Colorado Rockies are growing more dependent on single-game sales, said Greg Feasel, senior vice president of business operations. The team averages 4,000 same-day ticket sales per game, double the average from 2000.
“We lead baseball in day of game sales,” Feasel said.
He compared baseball to skiing.

“They’re snow farmers. We’re sun farmers,” he said. “It’s amazing how many people will decide to go to a game just because the weather is nice.”

Feasel said this year’s open day game was the “largest ticketed and revenue event in the history of our franchise.”

But the Rockies have said that season ticket sales have dropped amid the recession.
“We all are affected by the economy. We just don’t know really to what extent,” Feasel said.

The Colorado Avalanche have fallen from grace. When the team sold out every game November 1995 to October 2006, it was the envy of other NHL franchises, said Kurt Schwartzkopf, Kroenke Sports Enterprises’ chief marketing officer.

Schwartzkopf worked for the Kings during that run and said the team “looked at the Avalanche in awe.”
“The avalanche were always that team that everybody kind of strived to be,” he said. “We want to get back to that level.”

The Avs suffered its biggest attendance decline this year since the team arrived in Denver in 1995.
Schwartzkopf provided the least amount of information about the state of KSE financially among the panelists. KSE owns the Nuggets, Avs and the Pepsi Center.

Andy Vuong joined The Denver Post as a business reporter in 2000 after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a news-editorial degree. His primary beats are gambling, telecommunications and technology. Over the years, his coverage has included everything from aviation to federal courts.